While England and Montenegro were both winning to move further clear at the top of Group H, Ukraine climbed in to third place above Poland after a 3-1 victory in Warsaw. Andriy Yarmolenko and Oleh Gusev gave the visitors a 2-0 lead inside the opening seven minutes, and although Lukasz Piszczek pulled one back for Poland, Roman Zozulya's third ensured a first win of the campaign for Ukraine and kept them in contention.

Germany stayed in control of Group C after a 3-0 win in Kazakhstan. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Götze gave Joachim Löw's side a comfortable half-time lead, and Bayern Munich's Thomas Müller added a third after the break.

Fabio Coentrão's last-minute goal earned Portugal a face-saving point in Tel Aviv as they played out a six-goal thriller with Israel in Group F. Paulo Bento's men recovered from a 3-1 deficit to draw 3-3 and stay on level terms with their hosts in the group.

Bruno Alves gave Portugal the lead after just two minutes, but Tomer Hemed, Eden Ben Basat and Null Gershon turned it around, only for Helder Postiga and the Real Madrid full-back Coentrão to even things up.

Croatia claimed a comfortable 2-0 win over Serbia after the Bayern Munich striker Mario Mandzukic put Croatia in front midway through the first half and Ivica Olic extended the lead before the break as Croatia stayed second in Group A behind Belgium, who won 2-0 in Macedonia with goals from one on-loan Chelsea player, Kevin de Bruyne, and one current one, Eden Hazard.

Robin van Persie was among the goalscorers for Holland as they defeated Estonia 3-0 in Amsterdam to maintain their 100 per cent winning record in Group D, with Rafael van der Vaart and Ruben Schaken completing the scoring.

In Group E, the Tottenham midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson scored both goals for Iceland in their 2-1 win over Slovenia, netting the winner 12 minutes from time after being played in by the former Chelsea forward Eidur Gudjohnsen. Iceland are level on points with Albania, who recorded one of the shock results of the night, winning 1-0 in Norway courtesy of a 67th-minute goal from Hamdi Salihi.

In the top of the table clash in Group G, Manchester City's out of favour striker Edin Dzeko scored two of the goals as Bosnia-Herzegovina won 3-1 against Greece, the hosts moving three points clear at the top of the group. Slovakia remain third after being held 1-1 at home by Lithuania.

Aleksandar Tonev scored a hat-trick as Bulgaria consolidated second place behind Italy in Group B by defeating Malta 6-0 in Sofia, with the Czech Republic losing ground after they were surprisingly beaten 3-0 in Olomouc by Denmark.